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A personal thread. Today my family were due to be commemorating the 80th anniversary of the sinking of HMS Glowworm in the Battle of Narvik and the death of my grandfather. We were due to meet at the memorial with his name at Southsea but with social distancing that is not on
So here is the story of the events leading to the death of Chief Petty Officer, Stoker Frederick Hamilton, aged 39, during the Battle that subsequently gave rise to the award of the Victoria Cross to the ship's Captain (Lt Cmdr Rooke). Here is my grandfather Fred.
My grandfather was from a farming background, the 4th of 17!! children Rather than farm larbouring, he joined the Royal Navy at the end of WW1 and served on many many ships during his 21 year naval service.
In 1939 he joined the destroyer HMS Glowworm which was engaged in North Sea patrols. On 6 April 1940, the Glowworm left Scapa Flow joined a number of ships alongside HMS Renown to hinder the flow of Swedish iron ore to Germany.
Due to a very rough sea, Glowworm lost a man overboard and Glowworm left the group to search. The search was unsuccessful but when trying to remain the group Renown could not be reached and so Glowworm continued on its own
On its own, still trying to reach the group, early on 8th April Glowworm through the dark & mist came upon 2 German destroyers and a battle commenced. After an initial exchange the Admiral Hipper joined the fray against the Glowworm. The Hipper was twice the size of the Glowworm
The Glowworm was no match for the Battlecruiser and took a number of hits while trying to respond.
Suffering badly, as a last resort the Glowworm turned towards the heavy guns and at speed rammed the cruiser. While causing significant damage to the Hipper, Glowworm was wrecked. Gunfire stopped and at 9.00 the order was given to abandon ship.
In the oil covered surging sea most of the 151 crew were lost but the Hipper crew mercifully, despite the preceding battle, pulled 32 survivors from the Glowworm out of the sea
In the House of Commons, Churchill announced on the 11th "......The Glowworm's light has been quenched...."
It isn't definitively known how my grandfather died; it is understood he may have been shot during the exchanges. My mother was 5 at the time, the youngest of 3. Now at 85, I share this here for her as the family cannot be there in person at the Portsmouth Naval Memorial Southea
Thankfully we have now all moved on to a common purpose with our European neighbours and we need to work together in these challenging times; just occasionally we should also take time to remember the sacrifices made to get us where we are now.
My thanks to my father for collating the material shared here. He is 86 and also now social distancing from us. There is much more information on the battle on Wikipedia if you search for HMS Glowworm.
